How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’ve heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are trying to present or explain complex data.

Using charts and graphs can help to make technical or statistical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want your audience to try and interpret complex information with numbers, trends and relationships more easily, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them visualize your information.

Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!

Need to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts? This tutorial shows you how to use WP Visualizer – a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed appealing graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Allows you to upload data from your computer or an online source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for mobile viewers

If you are displaying visual data like bar charts, comparison charts or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to present the information is to create your graphs or charts using an image editing application, convert these into .jpg and .png images and then simply insert the image into your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add dynamic bar charts and graphs to WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create attractive and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable content.

Visualizer

Visualizer Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (see further below), or access and download WP Visualizer the WordPress free plugin repository using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

WordPress Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert appealing graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.

WordPress Visualizer uses Google Visualization API to render charts, which support cross-browser compatibility (adopting VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iOS and new Android releases, and are based on pure HTML5/SVG technology (adopting VML for old IE versions), so no additional plugins are required.

Visualizer also contains a variety of charts optimized for all your data visualization needs, including:

• Line chart
• Area chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Pie chart
• Geo chart
• Gauge chart
• Candlestick chart
• Scatter chart

Visualizer is also flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you fully customize their look.

Additionally, charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG technology to provide cross-browser compatibility (including VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Your visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without having to install extra software.

How To Install WordPress Visualizer

Inside your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …

In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …

Locate the entry in the search results area and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins area …

After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library in the admin menu …

This brings up the plugin’s Visualizer Library settings page …

After installing the plugin, this section will be empty.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you will want to display in your content.

How To Configure Visualizer

To add a chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …

A page will load in your browser with all of the different kinds of charts and graphs available.

Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …

Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a lightbox.

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

• Your first row includes your column headings.
• The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …

If you are unsure about how to format your data CSV, simply download the sample CSV file supplied with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload a CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

Locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin will now import the data from the CSV file and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing the data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type selected, the plugin displays various customization settings …

The plugin gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:

• General Settings – Configure settings for the chart’s title, font styles, tooltip, and legend.
• Pie Settings – Create 3D pie charts, draw slices counterclockwise, set the text content displayed on the slice, create a “donut” pie chart, rotate the chart’s “start” angle and set the slice border color.
• Residue Settings – Set the ‘Visibility Threshold’ (the slice relative part, below which a slice will not show individually.), ‘Residual Slice Label’ (the label for the combination slice that holds all slices below slice visibility threshold, e.g. “Other”), and ‘Residue Slice Color’.
• Slice Settings – Customize the ‘Slice Offset’ (how far to separate a slice from the rest of the pie), and ‘Slice Color’.
• Layout & Chart Area – Configure the layout (total size of chart) including the width and height of the chart as a number of percentage, background color for the main area of the chart and the chart border width and color, and the placement and size of the chart area (where the chart itself is drawn, excluding axis and legends).

Once you are satisfied with the look of your chart or graph, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

The graph or chart will be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that new visual elements are given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you easily insert charts and graphs into your content …

Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …

After a new chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or trash it …

Visualizer Plugin Usage

After creating a chart or graph and adding it to the Library, it’s very easy to add it to posts or pages.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

Next, place your mouse cursor where you want to insert your visual element into your content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode into your content …

Once you have added your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your content …

Once the post has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

You will see your graph in the location you specified …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive graphs for mobile device browsers …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes working with interactive chart information in WordPress really efficient.

The plugin developers have created a series of tutorials you can refer to for ways to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.

For tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add colorful and dynamic charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages with WordPress Visualizer.

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